//------------------------------// // The dreaming // Story: Destitute: A nightmare of the Nothing // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Little Luna was in her room, sleeping the night off. She had cried herself to sleep after she saw what had happened to Psycho. She loved him alot. He was like a father to her. He taught her how to behave, how to talk, and most importantly, how to prank. Celestia tried to help her cope with the situation, but she was in no better condition herself. So, to help, Woona slept the day off. The dream consisted of her having a great day with Psycho whilst walking about in a flowery garden full of waterfalls and magnificent trees as high as the eyes could see. They were hopping around and playing. Luna was having lots of fun. Sometimes, they'd find a group of ponies or minotaurs or even other creatures and prank them. The duo would redirect a river that would sweep them up, and make the clouds fall on the passer-bys. Both began to laugh as they sat on a cloud of comfort that floated above the giant bubbles created by the rivers that flowed through the air. "Haha! This is fun." Luna giggle. "Yes it is, Woona. Shall we prank more?" "I'd rather pass some time with you." "Sure. Wanna play a board game?" "I dunno. I just wanted to ask...if I could call you dad?" Luna looked upwards with big watery eyes at an awkward Psycho. "I...sure." Luna hugged him with a huge smile on her face and closed eyes, but...something became different. She opened her eyes to see that he became the Psychotic stallion that was always smiling widely and was looking down at her. "Problem?" "Wh-wh-" "It's okay, Woona." he said as he twisted his head."I became like this to protect you and Tia-Tia, so nothing will ever happen to you while I'm here." "The Nothing disagrees."roared a frightening voice of the lowest caliber possible. The world Luna was in was starting to break into pieces, and a giant black hole appeared in the background. Everything was being sucked into it. Psycho stepped in front of Luna to protect her, but there was something strange about this thing. It was very strong. Almost too strong. The hole began to devour everything around it. Luna hid behind Psycho and watched the monstrosity grow bigger as it devoured even the sky. "It seems you'll have to wake up now." Psycho laughed. "But...I wanna stay with you." "I'm still in the real world, so you can visit me as often as you want. I'm going to wake you up now." "Wait...what is that?" The stallion turned around to see something in the black hole. The multiple colors flashing past it allowed for a proper view of the two shapes. They looked like two slices of black and white. The bottom half was black, while the upper half was white, and while it had appeared, there was a massive pressure pushing down on everything around it, and the sound of a constant gong rang through the air. The atmosphere was unbearable, and poor little Luna couldn't stand it. "Up you go!" Psycho laughed as he flicked Luna on the nose. "HEY!" Luna yelled as she sat up in her bed, only to realize that there was nopony...except for a tall, slender figure that jolted and spiked in every direction like nothing she had ever seen before. It lift its arm and stretched it towards the little alicorn as it pointed at her. Its eyes were closed, and it was bipedal. Its appearance cried against the laws of physics and existence. It wasn't meant to be there, nor was it meant to be at all. Luna started to slide underneath her blanket as she stared at the thing with wide eyes. The entire room had gone dark, despite the sun still being up. "The Nothing will erase you, inferior deity." it hissed in a very low voice. Suddenly, the door slammed open, showing Tia-Tia at the entrance. The creature was behind the wooden plank and was crushed against the wall, immediately liberating the light. "C'mon, Luna! The Council wants to see us." "O...okay. Hold on." Celestia ran back outside and into the castle once more. Taking this opportunity, Luna's curiousity compelled her to look behind the door. As she shook and nervously and moved it, she discovered that the creature was no longer there, nor was there anything to prove that it had been there. All that was left was a symbol against the wall. It looked a twisted "P" with two diagonal lines becoming jagged as they passed it. This would disturb Luna for a very long time...almost making her paranoid and angry at everything... As the days went by, Luna couldn't help but thinking about her old foalsitter who was now set free into the world. While she didn't worry about the lives of those he would cross, as Canterlot witnessed yet again, he had a tendency to go overboard with the pranks. She had forgotten all about her dreams after having been "purified" by the elements of harmony, and she intended to stay as she was, especially seeing how much everypony appreciated her work. Right now, however, it seemed that the day was coming up, and she had grown tired. She announced to the council her end of the day, and that she was returning to her chambers for some well needed rest. Within her room fashioned to look exactly like the night, Luna lied down once more on her bed and snuggled herself comfortably under the blankets with some wiggling, and stared at the ceiling. It was night blue, and the stars glowed brightly by the use of crystals. There were some new bookcases here and there that Celestia had collected during Luna's banishment. There were suits of armor and many other artifacts that the tomcoltish alicorn had gathered later on in her life, and many more after her return! However, her eyes finally began to grow weary, and she slowly fell back asleep, always happy to have a bed this time. This time, even in her sleep, Luna slept, her snoring literally rocking the dreamworld. However, in this empty white space, a voice, filled with calm and seriousness, could be heard: "Awaken, my child. There are many important things that we must tell you." Luna continued to sleep. "Now is not the time for sub-concious dreaming. Let it become aware and send you this much needed knowledge during your awakening." The alicorn princess still snored, and the voice sighed in exhasperation. However, this is where another, more rowdy and evil voice came into play: "Huh. I warned you about that Canterlot thing. Just slap the bitch upside the head. That should wake her up good!" "No. I will not do such a thing. It is demeaning and a very cruel thing to do." "Your point being?" "*sigh* Sometimes, I grow tired of you, brother. We may have been born from the same energies, but we are much different from one another." "That's why you love me so much. Come on. Say it. You love me." "What is going on?" a groggy mare struggled to say as she woke up. "Ah. Finally. 'Bout time you woke up." "Who said that? Show yourselves!" "Huh. It seems you've grown accustomed to the speaking of the 'modern' ages. As for your question, I am the Destroyer. You have done much evil, and I'll be sending your soul to the Abyss. Ahaaaahahahaha!" That soul chattering laughter caused Luna's face to grow as white as her sister's, disregarding the separation of skin and fur. However, a loud punching noise was heard, and the other voice came into play. "Imbecile! Do not scare her like that." "What? My name is 'Destroyer'. Perhaps 'destroying' minds is also on my agenda?" "Don't forget that it was one of your demons of avarice and rage that made her into that beast." "Oops. I didn't do it on purpose." Destroyer spoke with a condescending tone. "Yes. Well. We have something very important to tell you, princess of the moon." Luna was just sitting on the floor, trying to find the source of these voices. "Oh. Our apologies." "More like your apologies." "Taking some forms more adept for lesser immortals should be easier for you." And in-front of the mare, two swirling balls began to form. One of black, and one of white. The white ball formed into a gigantic white alicorn stallion with golden threads all over his body. His "mane" and "tail" were actually huge waves of light flowing downwards like shock waves. He looked very powerful and gave a good aura about him. He was mouthless, but still had eyes, and said eyes were actually silver colored, as opposed to the expected golden color. Destroyer, on the other hoof, turned into a rather...exposing alicorn mare. While both entities were genderless, both would usually take on the opposite gender of the others for confusion and because they just hated eachother alot. The alicorn mare in question sported a fluffed up black coat and, despite what some would thing, actually used a blue the same shade as Luna's coat to serve as a wavy mane and tail. There were also lines on her body of te same blue, and here and there, the lines would converge into a blue rose. Her eyes were of an other wordly beauty, and even managed to make Luna blush as she stared into those seas of fluttering blue. Destroyer actually had a mouth, with several pointed teeth. As Luna stared at this beauty that was actually making her feel attraction, Destroyer wrapped around the moon princess and whispered in her ear before gnawing on it: "I look attractive, don't I? Mmmmm-GACK!" she said before being tossed away by the other being. "I apologize for my...brother. He tends to do that sort of thing. However, I have not yet presented myself. I am Creator, and I have a mission of utmost importance for you." "Creator and Destroyer?" Luna looked pensive for a moment, but suddenly, her pupils grew as big as saucers."You are-" "Yes. But now isn't the time for that. Ow. You really throw like a bitch, you know that?" the skimpy mare walked back towards the two alicorns she was tossed from. "And you just love spouting the word 'bitch' over and over." "Problem, bitch?" "What were you going to say?" "Hm? Oh yes! We have things that even WE cannot deal with." "What can be so powerful that the first beings of the universe cannot stop together?!" "The Nothing." Creator said with the look of worry and fear in his face. "Yes. Essentially, it's our parent. It considers existence as a tumor, and destroys it outright. It just deletes things. It's like they were never there to begin with." "It's something that neither mortal nor immortal can fathom." "No colors." "No shapes." "No sounds." "No sight." "Nothing." they finished in unison. "But what's so special about it? If you were born from it, shouldn't you know how to stop it?" "No." Destroyer added. "What? Why?!" "We cannot tell you that right now. However, we must show you where to go. Do NOT bring your sister. Let the council take over. Despite the events from the past with your pal, they can be trusted." Creator followed. "We'll show you where to go, and who to find so you can succeed in your quest." The Destroyer butted in and tore her horn off with her wings that turned into gigantic, black, leathery arms ending in scorpion claws. She then tore a rift in the fabric of the dream and showed a humongous, extremely industrialized city. Itt was simply beautiful to look at...from outside, where a massive, flowery park surrounded the city, but the place itself wasn't too quaint for the eyes. It was actually too painful to look at directly. "This is Duchess. What you are looking for is in there, and your two companions are here, on the outskirts." Destroyer poked at the tear, and let it zoom onto what looked like a scruffy unicorn who possesed a purple coat and a ruffed up blue mane and tail, both which had two white streaks sliding through them. His cutie mark was some strange symbol Luna had never seen before. He was back against what looked like a wall of tanned asphalt. Every time a mare would pass by, he would say something, but the words couldn't be heard. It was obvious to the moon princess that this stallion was trying to "seduce" every mare into his disgusting clutches. "Mmmm. Such a pervert. I can't wait for him to come home to me." Destroyer licked her lips and drooled while showing a nasty expression on her face. Both Creator and Luna threw their forelegs up to cover their faces as they saw this horror. "Myes. Well, zoom out a bit." the alicorn stallion asked as he prevented himself from throwing up. Not having a mouth would prove consequential. "Do...do my eyes deceive me?" Luna stuttered as she stared at the scene, her mouth wide open. Next to the stallion was a diamond dog rummaging through the trash. It had a brown fur coat, and seemed quite fond of chewing on the foods left in the garbage. After all, ponies weren't the only things living in this world. After another failed attempt at grabbing a mare's attention, it seemed blatantly obvious that he got fedup and started to yell at his friend, who emerged with three bones in...her mouth? Despite just wearing a torn, blue and gray shirt like most diamond dogs, this one also seemed to be a female. Destroyer burst out in laughter. "Do not let anyone know of your leaving. Take another form, preferably one centered around your form when you were a foal. I'll even give you a spell that will allow you to change the appearance of your cutie mark. Do not worry, it is only asthetic in appearance." Creator's horn glew brightly and shun over Luna a light of purity. "There. Now hurry." Luna's dream began to fade, and as it did, so did the voices. "One of its agents is already going towards t-" "Towards the city?" "NO! Tow..." Luna reawoke in a cold sweat. That was a peculiar dream, but it was no lie. She knew it. She already began planning her moves as she tried to recuperate in her bed. Meanwhile, a strange stallion was standing outside of a quaint little logging village near the Nyubet ice-desert. It was probably the only place near that death-zone that had any form of greenery. This stallion was black, but as his fur neared his hooves, they became white. Both his mane and tail, both "floating" as if affected by static electricity, were also white. He spoke nothing. He did not breathe. It is already a questionable if this thing was alive to begin with. However, it soon showed life as it walked towards the city, somehow knowing where it was despite its eyes being closed. It did not seem to ever open them. As the stallion approached the city, an ominous feeling swept through the inhabitants, who had no idea what was going to happen.